The present invention relates to direct energy conversion systems and more particularly to methods of converting the emission energy of radioactive decay into a useful energy. Current direct energy conversion systems are based on photovoltaic processes of a single photon to a single electron transfer within the valence band, thermoelectrics of thermally agitated electrons, fuel cells of chemically deprived electrons, or magnetohydrodynamic generators of electrons in free-to-free transition. These systems have respective intrinsic limits to generate a number of useful electrons for power conversion since these systems use the electrons in the valence band. Accordingly, the overall energy density of current direct energy conversion systems is intrinsically poor.
Some types of systems that use radioactive decay processes, such as alpha or beta batteries, are widely mentioned, but the fundamental underlying principles, the technical contents, and the ways to build are not clearly defined. Nuclear batteries or nuclear capacitors have a serious problem with harnessing electrons from the valence band of materials using the unusually low energy capacity of the alpha and beta particles. The energy and number of beta particles emitted from a radioactive decay process are very small, resulting in the conversion systems using these beta particles having very small power densities. Therefore, a nuclear battery subsidizes the beta decay electrons and the alpha particles to generate electron disparity of a p-n junction within the frame of the valence band. Therefore, these nuclear batteries only render a low energy density system.